Tropical Storm Isaac takes aim at HispaniolaROSEAU, Dominica (AP) — Tropical Storm Isaac took aim at the Dominican Republic and Haiti early Thursday, expected to gain strength after drenching tiny islands in its whirl over the eastern entrance to the Caribbean. No major damage was reported, but authorities in Puerto Rico said an elderly woman had died in an accident while preparing for the storm. U.S. forecasters said Isaac was likely to approach Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dom...

Syria: clashes near airport in contested AleppoBEIRUT (AP) — Government troops fought back rebels near the airport of battle-scarred Aleppo, Syria's state media said Friday, in the first official acknowledgement combat had neared a strategic gateway to the country's largest city. As fighting raged in both Aleppo and the Syrian capital Damascus, the United Nations announced that Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and veteran U.N. diplomat, would serve as the world body's ne...

Black Hawk crash kills 7 Americans, 4 AfghansKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. military helicopter crashed during a firefight with insurgents in a remote area of southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing seven Americans and four Afghans in one of the deadliest air disasters of a war now into its second decade. The Taliban claimed they gunned down the Black Hawk. American service personnel in Afghanistan are dying at a rate of about one per day so far this year despite a drawdown of troops...

South African police shoot, kill striking minersJOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African police opened fire Thursday on a crowd of striking miners that charged a line of officers trying to disperse them, killing some and wounding others in one of the worst shootings by authorities since the end of the apartheid era. Police declined to offer casualty figures after the shooting at the Lonmin PLC mine near Marikana, a dusty town about 70 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. However, polic...

Wave of attacks rumbles across Iraq, killing 59BAGHDAD (AP) — Insurgents in Iraq unleashed a relentless wave of attacks from before dawn until late at night Thursday, killing 59 people and wounding many more in a deadly show of force aimed at undermining the government's authority. The bomb and shooting attacks made for the country's deadliest day in more than three weeks, rattling nerves as families prepared to gather for a holiday weekend. More than 150 people have been killed in violenc...

Taliban carry out brazen attack on Pakistan baseKAMRA, Pakistan (AP) — Heavily armed Taliban fighters blasted their way into a Pakistani air force base with possible links to the country's nuclear program in a brazen assault that took two hours of fighting to put down, leaving a security officer and nine insurgents dead and underscoring the group's continued threat despite numerous military offensives. Hours later, Taliban gunmen in northern Pakistan forced 20 Shiite Muslims off buses, line...

Syrian FM claims rebels no match for militaryBEIRUT (AP) — Syria's foreign minister defiantly dismissed rebel forces and their international backers on Thursday as incapable of toppling the military defending Bashar Assad's regime, even as condemnation grew over expanded offensives that activists say have claimed dozens of civilian lives in recent days. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem's confident tone contrasted sharply with a series of recent blows to Assad, including high-level milit...

UN panel concludes war crimes perpetrated in SyriaGENEVA (AP) — The killings took place under a late spring sun. The squads poured into the Syrian village of Houla on foot and in vehicles: cars, minivans and pickups mounted with machine guns. At the end, more than 100 people were dead — nearly half of them children — in what the United Nations described for the first time Wednesday as a war crime perpetrated by the government forces and shabiha militia backing the regime of President Bashar A...

Iraq: Attacks kill 13 north of BaghdadBAGHDAD (AP) — Three bomb blasts shortly before sunset Wednesday killed 10 people north of Baghdad in the latest spasm of violence to grip Iraq. The blasts underscored the volatility of the country eight months after the last U.S. troops pulled out. Insurgents, led by the local branch of al-Qaida, are trying to re-establish themselves in their old strongholds and undermine the government. The first bomb went off Wednesday in Baqouba, about 60 ...

Syrian warplanes bomb rebel-held town, 20 killedAZAZ, Syria (AP) — Syrian fighter jets screamed through the sky Wednesday over this rebel-held town, dropping bombs that leveled the better part of a poor neighborhood and wounded scores of people, many of them women and children buried under piles of rubble. Activists said more than 20 people were killed. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 23 people died in the double airstrike and more than 200 were wounded. Mohammed ...

Israeli military: Blasts heard in southern cityJERUSALEM (AP) — Explosions rocked the southern Israeli city of Eilat late Wednesday, and the military said it suspected that rockets were fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. No casualties or damage were reported. Eilat is a Red Sea resort next to Sinai, scene of many militant attacks in recent months. On Aug. 5, Sinai militants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza converge. Then they stole Egyptian army vehi...

Bombs kill 46 across AfghanistanKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Suicide bombers launched multiple attacks in a remote corner of southwestern Afghanistan near the Iranian border Tuesday, killing dozens of people including shoppers buying sweets for a Muslim holiday and leaving charred and smoldering bits of cookies and dried fruit among the bodies on the ground. A separate market bombing, this one in northern Afghanistan, brought the overall death toll to 46, most of whom were civi...

Syrian rebels seek new leverage with abductionsBEIRUT (AP) — With gunmen standing in the background, a Syrian rebel video purported Tuesday to show their latest captive: a lone Lebanese Shiite suspected of links to pro-regime Hezbollah whose abduction appears part of a wider strategy shift to target perceived backers of Bashar Assad. A series of hostage-takings aimed at Assad's few remaining supporters — Iranians and Lebanese Shiites — has sought to both send a message about the rebels' re...

National pride runs through Olympics, now as ever LONDON (AP) — Given the depths of his anguish, you might have thought Wu Jingbiao had lost a loved one. Heaving with shame, the double world champion weightlifter wept like a child in the arms of the TV reporter interviewing him. "I let my country down," he sobbed. "I let the Chinese weightlifting team down. I let everyone who has cared about me down. I am sorry." He had won the silver medal. Organizers insist that the Olympic movement exalts ...

Mexicans celebrate Olympic soccer gold medalMEXICO CITY (AP) — Jubilant Mexicans celebrated their 2-1 Olympic gold medal soccer win over powerhouse Brazil Saturday, waving flags and chanting in plazas and streets across the country. Crowds began gathering not long after the Mexican team scored its first goal in the first minute of play, with shouts of "Goal!" ringing out from bars and homes. Fans erupted in massive celebration as the game ended, marking Mexico's first ever Olympic socce...

Blasts, gunfire hit Damascus in blow to AssadDAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Gunmen detonated back-to-back roadside bombs and clashed with police in central Damascus Saturday in attacks that caused no damage but highlighted the ability of rebels to breach the intense security near President Bashar Assad's power bases. The apparently coordinated blasts point to the increasing use of guerrilla-style operations in the capital to undermine the government's claims of having full control over Damascus....

Afghan policeman kills 10 fellow policemenKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan police officer killed at least 10 of his fellow officers on Saturday, a day after six U.S. service members were gunned down by their Afghan partners in summer violence that has both international and Afghan forces questioning who is friend or foe. Attacks on foreign troops by Afghans working with the alliance are on the rise and, while cases of Afghan security forces killing within their own ranks are less f...

Rebels carve out large enclave in north SyriaAZAZ, Syria (AP) — Residents of this north Syrian border town like to snap photos of their children atop the tank parked downtown, one of more than a dozen captured or destroyed by rebels in the battles last month that "liberated" the area from President Bashar Assad's army. Across the street in air-conditioned offices once occupied by Assad's Baath party, a new political order is emerging. Local rebels have formed committees to fix power line...

Spain: Model plane video evidence of terror plotMADRID (AP) — Authorities in Spain released a video Saturday that they claim shows suspected al-Qaida members training for a bombing raid using a model plane, the latest development in a case that has led to three arrests. Spanish officials allege the suspects were planning a terrorist attack in Spain or elsewhere in Europe, but say investigators managed to intercept them before they could carry out their plot. The undated video clip - grainy ...

Afghan policeman turns gun on Marines, kills 3KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan police officer shot and killed three U.S. Marines after sharing a meal with them before dawn Friday and then fled into the desolate darkness of southern Afghanistan, the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week. Four other international troops also died Friday, bringing to seven the number killed on the day in the violent south, where insurgents have their strongest roots. Thre...